it's so easy (to leave me)
by achieving elysium
Summary: "He was doing that stupid Deku thing again. Smiling like it didn't hurt." Or: Lunch breaks are breaks for a reason; stopping some robbers should be a walk in the park for two seasoned pro-heroes. Unfortunately for Katsuki and Izuku, neither of those are true. Trapped underground, the only thing left is for old wounds to resurface.


_**it's so easy (to leave me)**_

* * *

"When was the last time you slept?" Katsuki stopped mid-step. Deku kept walking, his words carrying on. "I know you've been working that case—"

"Shut up," Katsuki growled. Hw caught up, shoving his take-out in Deku's face. "You're not my mom."

Deku—he always had that _fucking _smile on his face, it pissed him off—grinned.

"Oh, right," Deku chirped. "Your mom would be like, _why the hell did you stay up, you brat, you r—_"

Katsuki reached over and shoved Deku.

"Brat." He paused. "And _you're _one to talk. Round Face said she had to use her Quirk on you so she could drag you out of your fucking office, _and _you clung to the doorframe like some sort of idiot! Number twenty-three, my ass."

And the last time Katsuki had checked, he'd been at twenty-one in the rankings. So ha. He could laugh all he wanted.

Deku flushed. "I still had work to do!"

"When Mina heard she laughed so hard she broke her desk. We're taking it out of your paycheck."

Deku crossed his arms. "What paycheck?"

"That poster photoshoot…"

"Shut- shut up! I didn't know it was going to be that popular! Mom, shit, Mom saw a copy, they had one up at her workplace, and I- I'll never be able to look at her again, oh my God, she called the other day…"

"You're so dumb."

"Well, I couldn't- I couldn't just say _no_, I mean, half the proceeds were going to that new mentorship program, and, and the representative—she was just so nice and everyone on the team was so excited to get me on board, I had to do it!"

"Or you could say no."

"You make it sound easy—"

Katsuki grabbed Deku's arm and stopped them in the middle of the street. A passerby gave them the stinkeye, but Katsuki was on a mission. He shook Deku back and forth.

"Repeat after me."

"Okay…"

"Fuck no."

"Fu— Kacchan!"

Katsuki shifted his take-out box under his arm, then used both hands to shake Deku's shoulders this time. He must have shaken harder than he thought, because suddenly Deku was flying—

He blinked. The air was knocked out of his lungs. The pain registered a moment later. Finally, the fact that he was on the ground.

Katsuki turned his head. His take-out was all over the sidewalk.

"Hell…"

Then the rest of his brain caught up with him, and Katsuki tore to his feet, furious. He turned on his heel, searching for the person—the _people_—that had knocked into him and Deku, and fuck, Deku.

"Hey, dickheads, what the—"

Deku was blinking the dust from his eyes. "Robbers, Kacchan. Come on!"

Oh, now Katsuki was even more pissed.

"That was my salad," he yelled, giving chase at the two robbers cutting through the crowds. "It's one in the afternoon, the hell are you idiots robbing shit for, hah?"

The crowd swarmed, panicked. Deku spun mid-step, giving reassurances and sending people away, but Katsuki kept going. He didn't look back as Deku fell behind to take lead with the civilians, his own eyes trained on the man and woman in all-black heading right for a parking garage.

"Great," Katsuki muttered. He called over his shoulder. "Trap them in!"

A wordless yell from somewhere behind him was all the confirmation Katsuki needed. He lit up his palms and cursed the fact that he'd left his gauntlets at the agency for their lunch break. Deku was paying for that too now.

The woman suddenly disappeared like the ground had swallowed her, but the man stayed where he was, tossing a panicked look back. Oh, like Katsuki was letting him get away. The man dashed in between a set of cars, and Katsuki cracked his knuckles as he ran after.

Perfect.

He'd never tell PR, but Katsuki loved blowing up cars. Buildings were overrated. And also very dangerous.

Cars were just fun.

Footsteps behind him; that was Deku, falling into place. Katsuki didn't need to check.

"The other one," Katsuki said. "She just disappeared."

"Got it," Deku confirmed. "I contacted some local authorities in case we need backup."

"We don't need backup." A flash of dark cloth between two cars. Katsuki grinned, a wolf on the hunt. "But they can clean up afterwards."

"I'll keep an eye out for the other, then." Deku's fingers flitted across Katsuki's shoulder. "Stay safe."

Katsuki grunted, which was as close as Deku was ever going to hear _you, too. _

"Stop running!" he yelled into the empty garage. Katsuki's voice echoed. Another flash of movement; Katsuki rounded in that direction, feeling sweat collect in his palms.

A glint caught his eye. Katsuki kept his senses sharp as he knelt down, examining what had gotten his interest. A beautiful necklace, inlaid with diamonds that looked like something Todoroki could buy fifty of.

Ugh. They always thought they could get away with it.

A loud bang echoed. Katsuki went still, listening. Again, further and deeper in. He didn't stop going.

More jewelry. Katsuki kicked it aside.

"Coward!"

"Heroic," the man applauded. He stepped out, slanted eyes peering at Katsuki. "A paragon of peace."

"You're one to talk," Katsuki spit. The man dropped the bag, and Katsuki saw what must have been hundreds of pieces of stolen jewelry glittering innocently back at him.

"Ground Zero…"

"Oh, shut up," Katsuki snapped. He circled, moving slowly. _Patience and restraint, _Ejirou was always telling him.

The man spun a bracelet around his finger. Light scattered on the floor. "I heard quite a few unsavory things have been said about you, Ground Zero. You're not an awfully impressive guy. Actually, you're pretty shitty."

Just because the man was _sort of _right didn't mean he got to say that about _Katsuki. _Only Katsuki got to beat himself up.

Patience and— fuck that.

"I'll show you _shitty._"

Explosions propelled Katsuki forward. The man dropped, throwing out a hand, and jewelry spun upwards. Cold chains wrapped around his ankles, snaking up his arms, but Katsuki managed to ram a fist right in the man's face.

The jewelry tightened. Katsuki exploded through them.

"Deku's paycheck," he reminded himself, and tossed aside a broken piece. Hundreds of tiny little jewels scattered, bouncing like stars.

The man levitated another piece; Katsuki caught it. It cracked against his palm.

"You think a bunch of expensive rocks can hold up against me?"

"Not really," the man admitted. He smiled, a diamond disappearing into his palm as he tucked his fingers away. "Your head is thicker than I thought, Ground Zero. Maybe these can't stop you, but…"

He tilted his head back. Katsuki gritted his teeth but looked up and saw a trail of green light. Deku.

Dread pooled in his stomach. The man got up and dusted himself off; and Katsuki narrowed his eyes, surging forward, grabbing the front of his shirt. Fabric tore under his fingers. The ground cracked.

"Kacchan, watch out!"

He threw himself back in the nick of time as the ground split. The man disappeared—Katsuki saw the long ponytail of the other robber, a glimpse of her face—before they were gone.

"Kacchan!"

"The hell, Deku?"

Deku was suddenly in his face. Katsuki stopped himself from punching, an instinct that hadn't always served him well.

"Are- are you okay?"

"Yeah, but where the fuck did they go?"

"The woman," Deku said. Katsuki suddenly noticed the blood on his face and stared. "She had some sort of… ground manipulation Quirk, I'd say, or maybe something… I'm not sure, but she could travel really quickly with it."

"You're saying they got away."

"We can—"

The smallest rumbling under their feet. Kacchan froze. Deku did, too.

"Ground manipulation," Katsuki said slowly. "And that man said— shit, he was just a distraction."

"Ah…"

A pillar collapsed. Katsuki watched it as if in slow motion. Then a piece from the ceiling, and Deku grabbed his hand and began to pull him, following the direction of the yellow arrows on the floor. Katsuki stumbled. Got his head together.

Right. A ground manipulation Quirk.

And whoop-de-fucking-do, they were _underground. _

Three floors down, Katsuki realized there wasn't going to be enough time for them to get out. A second later, Katsuki thought he caught the moment Deku realized it too, thought sparking in his green eyes as the ceiling crumbled, blocking their way.

"Deku, don't—"

Deku's hand tightened around his wrist.

It was the last thing Katsuki remembered before Deku tackled him and threw them backward. Green flashes of light danced across his skin; a loud sound echoed. Deku curled his body around Katsuki's, a shield, and Katsuki yelled his name over the deafening roar—

And then Katsuki passed out.

He came to with a mouthful of curses before he was even fully awake. Dust clung to his skin, his clothes.

Katsuki sat up. A few rocks shifted.

He opened his mouth to speak and ended up coughing instead. His ribs hurt. Suddenly he remembered an impact, his body aching. He tried getting up, and the world spun a little. A minor head injury. Whatever.

And _then _he remembered his partner, and if Katsuki hadn't been awake before he certainly was now.

"Deku!"

The garage had caved in. Katsuki saw scraps of colored metal. Pieces of cars. He spun in circles until he was dizzy, cupping his hands over his mouth.

"Deku!"

There was no response. Okay, fuck.

There wasn't any exit that he could see; the entrance upward was blocked off now by large chunks of stone. Katsuki took in his surroundings. His heart beat rapidly, but he kept stoic as he scanned the rest of the space. There, a crushed car. A still-working light, flickering. A mop of green hair—

He was there, crouching down. Katsuki felt sick as he lifted Deku's head carefully, trying to turn his face upwards.

Deku had gotten himself half-crushed under rubble, it looked like. His right side was buried and out of sight, but the rest of him was free. A large support pillar stretched across him, pinning Deku down.

"Hey." Katsuki hit Deku's face. "Hey, dumbass."

He tapped Deku's cheek and felt breath stir across his fingers. Katsuki sat back on his haunches. Deku blinked rapidly, then shifted. He squinted up at Katsuki.

"H-hey, Kacch-_ahhh_…" He squeezed his eyes shut, features twisting, and Katsuki wanted to look away but couldn't. "Ow."

"That's it?"

Deku gritted his teeth, then turned his expression into a pained smile. "I have a high pain- a high pain… pain threshold. Hey, are you okay?"

He was doing that stupid Deku thing again. Smiling like it didn't hurt.

"You're the one stuck under a bunch of rocks," Katsuki spat, "and they're not even expensive rocks. So I'm just fine, thanks for asking."

"Expensive?"

"Jewelry thieves," Katsuki grunted. "I need to get you out of there, Deku."

Deku's fingers curled. Katsuki remembered the touch of his hand, the brush of his fingers over Katsuki's wrist.

"I dunno," Deku said. His smile wobbled. "I don't think thi- _oh_\- don't think this is what they meant by getting some… some rest…"

"Deku," he started, warning. Deku's eyelids fluttered.

"I'm going to pass out."

"Do _not _pass out."

Deku cracked his eyes open again. A rush of warm relief swept through Katsuki's chest as he knelt down, assessing the situation to see if he could do anything. Maybe a couple of well-timed explosions… he could grab Deku—

"Kacchan's… so cool," Deku mumbled.

"This shit again?"

He scrabbled at the rock until his fingers bled. But he couldn't just _use _his Quirk. Explosions were volatile, and as much control as Katsuki had there was just that element of unexpectedness in which danger would slip through. He could hurt Deku. Or the both of them.

"Yeah," Deku continued. Dull eyes tracked Katsuki's movement. "You make not passing out sound so easy."

"Maybe if you didn't do it every other day second year you'd know," Katsuki snapped. Deku's eyes flashed up towards his face. He didn't respond though, which was a bad sign. Deku talked all the time. When Katsuki didn't want him to, but even more when Katsuki let him.

"I can… I can get you out," Katsuki said. Deku mumbled something. "Anything broken?"

"My bank account," Deku muttered. He shifted a little. "I think- I think—"

Katsuki pressed a hand under one of the pieces that was pinning him down. There wasn't a very large gap, but he tried to lever it up. It didn't really work.

His hand came back slick— and even before he saw it in the light he knew it wasn't sweat but blood—

"Fuck," Katsuki said.

"You're okay, though?" Deku asked, looking at the blood on Katsuki's hand.

"It's yours," he snapped.

"Oh," Deku said, and frowned. "That's probably not good."

Katsuki tore off his jacket. He folded it, and then pressed it under, guessing at where Deku's wound was. Deku whined, a high, soft noise. His fingers clutched at Katsuki's arm.

"I'm trying to stop you from bleeding out, stop that."

"Stop bleeding… out?"

"Stop trying to stop me."

"From stopping you from stopping me."

"I'm going to leave you behind," Katsuki snapped, stressed and not-scared, and Deku went still under his hands. He made another, lower sound, and then Deku's hand came searching. Fingers latched around Katsuki's wrist and stayed locked there.

Katsuki knelt there, and he hated that he didn't know what to do.

"Don't…"

The word was faint. Deku held on.

"Deku."

"Don't leave me behind…" Deku whispered. His voice cracked and split like stone. "Kacchan, please."

"I—" His throat ran dry. Shit. "I didn't. Fuck. I wasn't, _agh. _You know!"

The grip on his wrist told him Deku _didn't _know. And suddenly it was like they were in their first year of U.A. again. Suddenly it was like that moment that Katsuki had been taken and the coldness was creeping around him, and he'd said, _don't come. _

Breathless.

Suddenly it was like the moment Katsuki had ground an apology through his teeth as they'd stood, bleeding and swaying on the feet. The moment before he'd first taken Deku's hand—stilted, unknowing.

"Izuku," he said.

A tear tracked down Deku's face. He turned his head away, but in the flickering light Katsuki could still see it. His pain.

"You made it so easy," Deku whispered. Katsuki sat. His heart dropped through a gaping crack in the ground. "You made it so easy… leaving me."

"_Izuku._"

Deku's breath shuddered. Katsuki pressed his knee to Deku's shoulder, feeling the warmth.

"I'm not leaving you behind," he said. Deku shut his eyes. "Izuku. I said- fuck, I said it, okay? I'm not going to leave you behind anymore. Okay?"

"You said…"

"I didn't mean it!"

And this was why Katsuki hated situations like this, being trapped in, like the time he and Denki had been stuck in an elevator. Damn. They'd had to do this. Talk about _feelings. _How they'd felt stupid and worthless and useless. And Katsuki had never been able to forget the ring of surprise around Denki's eyes when Katsuki admitted painfully that he was useless.

So fucking useless.

"Sorry," Deku murmured. He'd closed his eyes again. Katsuki wanted to throttle him, just a little.

"The hell are you sorry for?" he bit out. "Don't fucking apologize."

A timid, aching silence stretched for a moment. Katsuki didn't know what to say. Deku, it seemed, was out of words. He realized Deku's fingers were still around his wrist, but he didn't want to— it didn't seem— ugh, right, to pry them off, though he didn't know if it was possible to break free of Deku's grip.

"Do you… mean it?" Deku asked in a small voice.

"About what?"

Katsuki's words were louder, bouncing off and back around.

"That you're not… not leaving me behind anymore."

Katsuki sighed. He tipped his head back and stared at what was left of the ruined ceiling. A distant sound echoed, like the grinding of stone.

"...Yeah."

"But—"

"Deku," Katsuki said, then, "Izuku."

He never really said _Izuku_; after a certain point Deku had stopped being Izuku and was just Deku, and saying his real name was strange. Deku was an insult. Deku was an insult, and then it was a different name, and then it became the name of… a friend, maybe.

"It's different now, remember?" Katsuki told him. "We did all that shit. Counseling and whatever. Communication. Remember that stupid poster they used to have up on the wall with all the circles and it was like, _these are all the parts of _like, uh, being a good…"

"Friend?" Deku finished for him. "Yeah. I remember."

"Yeah, and it was all that sappy shit like, talk to each other, and, fucking hell… trust or whatever."

Deku sniffled. "It's not sappy, Kacchan."

"Kinda."

"I- I guess."

Katsuki wanted to stomp his foot. "I'm not going to leave you behind because you're— you're my friend. Shit. Okay? We're friends."

Deku had been _weak, useless. _And then he was rival. And then he was friend.

"You were always so— far ahead of me anyway," Katsuki gritted out. After One for All, even Quirkless, Deku had always looked back at him. Once Katsuki had thought it was pity. But it had been admiration, or hope.

"No I wasn't," Deku protested. "Kacchan, I- I really…"

"Deku?"

"I thought I was always chasing you."

"We'll split the difference," Katsuki offered, "meet in the middle."

Deku laughed. "Kacchan, compromising?"

"Shut up."

"Kacchan and Deku, neck-and-neck," Deku chanted, recalling what the class had always said about them behind their backs. Fiercely competitive and driven, but no one had seen the two of them really.

"Side-by-side," Katsuki interrupted, and regretted it immediately. He'd just said that after talking about their feelings for who knew how long. Maybe Deku would forget it later. Blood loss or something.

Deku breathed. Katsuki let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding back.

"We'll get out of here together," Katsuki promised. He twisted his hand in Deku's grip and locked his fingers around Deku's instead. Deku smiled—not a smile for the pain, or a shit-eating grin, but a smile of the real kind.

And in the distance, like a promise, the sound of familiar voices echoing. He heard their names being called.

"Told you," Katsuki said. He relaxed. Deku sighed. "Also, this is so your fault."

"Your fault," Deku mumbled. "_Let's chase them into a parking garage, Deku._ Super good idea."

"Was at the time."

"You owe me some takeout tomorrow, then," Deku said, looking up at Katsuki through his lashes. On the other side, flashlights shone through the cracks, and the voices grew louder.

"Here!" Katsuki called. He glanced back down at Deku. "Oh, yeah?"

"The math adds up. You can buy me lunch," Deku drawled, "'cause, like, we're _friends_. And also you owe me for this."

"Yeah, right," Katsuki said, "but I guess that's easy for you to say, huh?"

Deku tilted his head up, and Katsuki caught his smile.


End file.
